EAEU, Iran to co-operate on Eurasian Agroexpress project

Iran is joining the implementation of the Eurasian Economic Union's Agroexpress project, sb.by reports with reference to the website of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC)

A meeting with the Iranian side on the development of this project was held at the EEC venue.

“As agreed during the work on a full-scale free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are putting all our agreements into practice,” the Member of the Board (Minister) for Trade of the EEC, Andrey Slepnev, noted.

According to the Minister, the talk was about the supply of EAEU products to Iran, as well as the organisation of large-scale transportation of Iranian vegetables and fruits to the markets of the EAEU’s countries. The relevant products are still on store shelves today. However, with the involvement of the Eurasian Agroexpress, agricultural products will be delivered more quickly, with better quality and fewer intermediaries.

“We offer co-operation with a large Iranian holding, which can either directly enter into the project, or act as a ‘single window’ to organise the supply of EAEU agricultural producers to Iran and export our products in the opposite direction,” the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran, Alireza Peyman-Pak, stated.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed to continue working in this direction, delegating the discussion of the specific format and details of co-operation to the directorate of the Eurasian Agroexpress project (ANO Eurasian Agrologistics) and the Iranian company.

“At the same time, we understand that, besides logistics, there are other issues that need to be addressed. These are mutual settlements, veterinary and phytosanitary control, and transit issues through Iran towards the Persian Gulf countries and India,” Andrey Slepnev stressed.

The initiative to implement a joint project of the EAEU member states to carry out accelerated rail and multimodal transportation Eurasian Agroexpress in order to develop regular mutual supplies of agricultural products and food, as well as export to Asian and European destinations, was adopted by the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on February 25th, 2022. By order of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council dated February 3rd, 2023, the project was scaled up to cover the routes of the North-South corridor.